A “hotel” that costs just 100 euros per night, and receives a very special clientele: in the middle of the Saudi desert, the first camel hotel offers rest and “full service” treatment to competing camels, an animal highly valued in the rich kingdom of the Gulf.
In Ruma, about 100 kilometers northeast of Riyadh, Omayr al-Qahtani’s camel was entitled for two weeks to wash, cut, heat and even warm milk in the heart of an endless expanse of red sand.
The center opened its doors as part of King Salman bin Abdelaziz Al Saoud’s prestigious camel festival, which runs from December to January. The winners of the camel beauty contest will be awarded prizes worth a total of about 60 million euros.
“It’s very comfortable. “My camel is being treated and monitored regularly by doctors,” said al-Qahtani, a 51-year-old businessman from Riyadh. In total, the accommodation of him and his camel will cost him 140,000-190,000 euros.
Omayr al-Qahtani, who has been involved with camels for years, remembers well the time when the festival participants set up tents and took care of their animals themselves.
In the “hotel” which includes 120 “single” or “double”, open “rooms”, about 50 employees tenderly care for and feed all the camels.
According to Mohamed Al Harbi, the festival’s press officer, the hotel aims to “protect and care for the camels but also lighten the weight from the shoulders of their owners”.
Unsurprisingly for the organizers, the hotel brought in profits of 1.4 million euros in one month.
Camel breeding is a multi-million euro industry for Saudi Arabia. Similar festivals, such as beauty pageants or camel races, are held all year round in the country. Some affluent Saudis spend hundreds of thousands of euros to buy and care for the most beautiful animals.
In beauty contests, the shape and size of the camel’s lips, neck and hump are judged. To win, some participants went so far as to inject Botox into their camels, thus being excluded. This forbidden practice is also punished with a hefty fine of up to 23,000 euros.
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